HHS Secretary RFK, Jr. and Rep. DeLauro, at Wednesday's House Appropriations Committee hearing.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, accused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday of “jeopardizing the health, safety, and well-being of millions of American families” by “a dangerous dismantling” of his agency.
“I think we’re watching the demise of our public health system,” DeLauro said in an interview later in the day. “We’re putting people’s lives at risk. Under the guise of fraud, waste and abuse, they are just obliterating our public health system. And it’s all unlawful. They have no jurisdiction to do this and they’re doing this right now.”
Speaking at the beginning of a committee hearing on the HHS budget, DeLauro, D‑New Haven, blasted Kennedy for President Donald Trump’s proposed spending cuts to health programs, including research into diseases.
“I do not believe the American people want less cancer research and fewer people tracking infectious diseases, but that is exactly what this budget will deliver. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis — driven in part by skyrocketing health care costs — and you, Elon Musk, and President Trump are making it worse. You are wreaking havoc at every level of our most critical health institutions. You are jeopardizing our families’ health for the sake of billionaire tax cuts.”
She accused the administration of “destroying the crown jewels of our health system,” singling out NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. She said Kennedy, who has cast doubts on the safety and efficacy of vaccines, is “promoting quackery” and “thus endangering the health of the American people with pseudoscience, fearmongering, and misinformation.”
Kennedy said that the administration sought “to put health care spending on a sustainable fiscal path.”
“We must remake the government to maximize efficiency and productivity in order to fulfill the president’s promise to make America healthy again,” he said in his opening statement. “HHS takes seriously our role as responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, and we look forward to working with you to implement the president’s agenda while continuing to cut government bloat and rescope the federal role. Protecting the health of Americans has to be done hand in hand with protecting our nation’s fiscal health — they rely on each other.”
The two squared off at the hearing when DeLauro took exception to Kennedy’s opening statement that he wanted to “rescale our biomedical research budget” while continuing to “prioritize America’s national security and competitiveness.”
“Excuse me but that’s BS,” DeLauro said. “You are not rescaling NIH research, you are proposing to cut it by $20 billion.”
She then complained that Kennedy was refusing to spend billions of dollars already appropriated by Congress.
“Are you planning to break the law by impounding congressionally appropriated funds?” DeLauro asked.
“If Congress appropriates me the money I’m going to spend the money. You have the power of the purse here,” Kennedy said.
“We’re going to hold you to your word,” DeLauro said. “You have an obligation to carry out the law and to implement what the Congress has done.”
DeLauro has been a fierce critic of the administration’s efforts to cut federal funding that had been approved by Congress. Last month, she convened a panel of health experts, including Connecticut Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani, to sound the alarm about Trump’s proposal to cut $36 billion from the HHS budget and to reduce the agency’s workforce by 20,000 employees.
A recent poll by the health care research group KFF showed the public on DeLauro’s side. By 61 percent to 38 percent, respondents opposed major spending and staff cuts at federal health agencies and by 59 percent to 41 percent agreed that the Trump administration was “recklessly making broad cuts to programs and staff, including some that are necessary for agencies to function.
On the other side of the Capitol, Kennedy also faced off against another Connecticut Democrat, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, at a Senate Health Committee hearing.
Murphy accused Kennedy of lying when the secretary earlier told the committee, “I will not work to impound, divert, or otherwise reduce funding appropriated by Congress for the purpose of vaccination programs.”
Said Murphy: “That is not what happened. You have done the opposite. You canceled $12 billion in grants to the states, including my state, that are used to administer and track vaccines.”
And then Murphy hammered Kennedy over his refusal to endorse the measles vaccine.
“Are you recommending the measles vaccine or not?” Murphy asked Kennedy.
“I am not going to just tell people everything is safe and effective if I know that there’s issues,” Kennedy responded. “I need to respect people’s intelligence.”
“I think you’re answering the question, and that’s really dangerous for the American public and for families in this country,” Murphy said.
Countered Kennedy: “The reason people have lost faith in this program is because they’ve been lied to by public officials for year after year after year.”
Murphy then declared: “The secretary of Health and Human Services is no longer recommending the measles vaccine.”
Meanwhile, in the Senate on Wednesday.